Fool's Dream
by Shalan the Magnificent
Summary: Oneshot Those who chase after a fool’s dream… chase after something that can never be had. They say… only a fool, only those that wish to be fooled can see her dance… can see her Innocence… LaviOC


**Title:** Fool's Dream

**Summary: **Oneshot Those who chase after a fool's dream… chase after something that can never be had. They say… only a fool, only those that wish to be fooled can see her dance… can see her Innocence… LaviOC

**Shalan's Say: **Thank Cobra Starship… that's all I have to say… If you would like me to continue this story then send me as many reviews as you can… I'm not sure I have enough motivation to continue it otherwise…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own -Man…

&

It was a fool's dream, to have one lasting love before the end of time… As time neared an end love lasting seemed only something a fool would reach for…

The sun's rays were fading upon the faces of the people in Italy as the great golden orb neared the horizon, the moon's mirage becoming clearer by the second. As shadows deepen and radiance fades only a single light remains amongst the people in the world.

He sighed heavily as he walked through the crowds of Venice. He had several days before he was set to return to the headquarters so he had managed to wrangle a trip to Venice in after he had collected the information that had been requested. It had only been a day's ride in so he wasn't particularly bothered, it wasn't like it was going to take him a week to get there and a week to get back to headquarters. He scanned the crowd his hands in his pockets, he half wondered if there were any akuma around, after all, he was bored out of his mind.

It had been quite a while since he had been on a mission by himself but the Bookman had asked him to do some information gathering, he had gladly accepted. There was nothing like Venetian women anyways. He smiled to himself as he walked out over one of the many bridges in the suspended city. A flower girl handed him a rose and he thanked her, twirling it between his fingers as he dug for money but when he looked up she was gone. He furrowed his brows.

_Only a fool would accept a gift from a girl and not repay her._ He turned, his eyes scanning the people in the street. "I guess… that makes me a fool…" he sighed under his breath, putting a hand to his head. _Maybe I can do something with it to make it a repayment… _he twirled the rose again between his fingers.

His brilliant red hair stood out against the swarms of black and brown hair around him as he passed through the groups of people as he passed like a ghost through the lives that continued despite the threat of an Armageddon. Like shadows passing across the face of a great mountain the Black Order passed amongst the people with the sole intent of protection.

He squinted as the sunlight blazed in his eyes, shading his face with his arm as he turned to disappear into the crowds again. At least there was a little light left of the day.

The bells chimed in the air like a sweet, enchanting melody, drawing men near in the fading sunlight. He closed his eyes, trying to pick out where the sound was coming from. He heard a soft flute playing as the bells sang in his ears. He walked towards a circle of men, believing this to be the source of the beautiful sound.

What he saw was unlike anything he had seen before.

Brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red soared through the air as he pushed his way through the crowd of men. Hands whipped around the form in the center of the fabric as it swirled around the figure that moved gracefully from one movement to the next. A flash of light struck the gold on her face as she threw her body into the air, soaring into a brilliant spiral of color before returning to earth in a flurry of arms and legs.

He watched as the sun danced before him, the sunset's gleaming rays illuminated her as she spun in a circle, her body bowed backwards, a hand outstretched to the men around her. As she spiraled through steps and movements that couldn't have been human he watched an angel spread its wings, soaring into the sky once again, only to return in a dazzling display of humanity.

It was as though the sun had been given a persona on earth, the stunning rays of the sun, now sinking slowly behind the dancer glinted off of her golden bangles and necklace. A mirage of beauty whirled before him as though a dream, the flute music mesmerizing him. He caught a glimpse of her azure eyes as she whirled before him, slowing her dance as the music slowed.

The world seemed to disappear as she leapt from the ground, ascended into the sky, bowed backwards, her hands outstretched as if she were going to take a hold of the sun. He saw her eyes in that moment, her azure eyes that seemed to be reaching out to the sun and the sky itself, pleading for something that no one else understood.

She seemed frozen in time as the flip slowed, her fingers barely touching the ground as she twisted her body again to land on her feet and roll straight into the next turn in a flurry of clapping hands. His lips parted as he watched her, his heart and eyes following her every movement.

It really was a fool's dream… to want something that he knew he could never have. To want to help his friends and care for them but not to get too close to them. To want to be faithful to himself when he wasn't even sure who that self was anymore. To want to chase the sun when he knew the shadows were growing. To want to love eternally and be loved eternally when eternity now seemed so short.

Her many layered skirts of soft silks and sheer fabrics whirled around her as she slowed to a stop in her beautiful turn, sliding to a stop on one knee, one beautiful tanned leg stretched out before her. Her body was curved backwards, her fingers touching the ground while her head hung near her rear. The crowd dispersed around him, tired of their daily infidelity to their wives and girlfriends with a beautiful dancing girl.

He stood, watching her until he was the only one standing before her.

Until the sun had cast the streets of Venice into shadows, until the red and gold of her skirts had faded behind the ocean.

Until a milky moonlight, a half light, that gave only hope to those with nothing to lose, brought promise of a morning to come.

Until he was the only thing she saw, cast in half shadow.

"You are a wanderer like me?" She said softly, the bells on her ankles chiming softly as she walked towards him. "Only one who does not know himself would stand for so long before me…" Her voice was like the first gulp of water after dying of dehydration. There was a lyrical rhythm to the way she spoke, a music in her tone.

"Why do you wear that mask?" He hadn't known he was going to speak. Her lips parted slightly, as if surprised.

"Why do you wear yours?" She touched the golden mask with a finger. "We all wear a mask in one form or another, do we not?" She slipped the rose from his hand as he watched her. She lifted the white rose to her masked face, her azure eyes lifting to meet his green.

"To keep myself from looking for something that I cannot find," he reached out to touch her face but by the time his fingers had reached her face she was several feet from him.

"Then look upon me no further, for your mask is not fooling yourself…" she turned to walk away, her accompaniment seemingly vanished.

"What are you?" He asked her, his voice strained. She had seen straight through him, who on earth was she?

"I am but a shadow, passing amongst those who hide themselves behind a joker's mask…" her skirts whipped up in the gentle winds, her ankle length blonde hair twisting in the breeze as she turned away from him. "I am but a dream." She lifted a hand to brush her golden bangs back from her face.

"If you're a dream… then why is it that others see you as well… how is it that you can mesmerize so many?" She stopped once again, turning to gaze upon him.

"I mesmerize only those that wish to be mesmerized, those whose hearts are wavering," she seemed faltering, as if her image was that of a mirage itself. The long skirts whipped up from a golden band low around her bare hips. Her body was that of a dancer, long, lithe and lean. From the thin band of gold that held her scarlet and gold top tightly to her breasts hung long, hanging sheets of gold and red fabric that looped through the bullion gauntlets at her wrists. The shimmering bangles chimed against the metal as she moved, creating a gentle jingling.

"He who wears a mask may not see the masks of others…" Her voice tumbled against his mind, calming it, setting his heart at ease. "As long as you continue to wear the mask of a jester, you will always struggle to understand yourself, and you will always be fooled by others."

"What's your name?" He reached for her again.

"Those who chase things that cannot be captured are surely fools… chasing a fool's errand…" again she was just outside his grasp.

"Then am I a fool? For wanting to love for eternity… knowing that eternity is so short? Am I a fool for wanting to keep those I care about at arms length and yet embrace them at the same time? Am I a fool for wanting to know why you call me a fool?" His green eyes saddened in the shimmering moonlight.

She watched him, watching the refractions of silvery light shine against his face, reflected off of the canals that surrounded them. Silver glinted against silver as he moved, his jacket reflecting the moon's borrowed rays.

"Yes." She said simply after a long silence.

"Then, my question has been answered," he looked up into the stars above them. "Will you dance for me once more?"

"For you alone? Or for your mask as well?" She glanced over at him.

"I'll show you mine, if you show me yours…" He pulled off his headband and eye patch, sliding his jacket off his shoulders.

"For that, I will dance once more for you," she whirled around, whipping her hand into the air, bringing it down to touch the ground in a bow. "I shall show you what night can only reveal," as her body straightened up, her hand holding her mask in place, the golds and scarlets that had once surrounded her shimmered to silvers and blues, her golden mask shone in the moonlight glinting silver as she whirled into the air before him once more.

He couldn't help himself, once again he was drawn into her dance, this time her hand touched his as he reached for her. Her skirts whipped in the air around her as she flipped back through the air once again, spiraling gracefully, as though suspended on a wire.

_Only a fool… can see me without my mask… for only a fool would ask for my dance once again…_ she didn't say it, she didn't speak, he knew she didn't for he was watching her the entire time. However, he certainly heard it.

It seemed as though the already short eternity had already passed by the time she walked towards him again, the silvers and grays of her skirts whispering around her legs. He reached out for her, his eyes soft. Her fingers caught on his as she reached up with her other hand.

"Are you prepared for what the world will look like when the mask is removed?" She asked softly. "Once the illusion is gone… once the shadows have taken us… will you still watch me dance?"

"Yes, I will…" he watched as she dug her fingers into the sides of the silver mask on her face. "I will watch you dance whether or not you wear a mask… because I can see the beauty behind it," his voice softened.

The moonlight's glimmering rays faded in the twilight around them, the silvery reflections' amplification now taken from them as she dropped the mask with its silver and gold ribbons to the ground. As it clattered to the ground it once again became what it was.

A cracked white porcelain mask, two tattered black ribbons attached to either side, lay forlorn now at her bandaged feet.

He lifted his eyes to see her face.

There, in the faint light of dawn, stood the blonde haired dancer. Her clothing now only a gray and ragged dress. Her long, filthy blonde hair gathered at her heels on the ground behind her.

But her azure eyes remained the same.

"Only a fool chases what he knows he cannot have…" he said in an undertone.

"What is it that you chase, fool?" Her voice was hoarse and broken, but he could hear what had once been a beautiful, lyrical tone.

"Myself." Her azure eyes bored into his as her dirty fingers remain hooked on his.

"And what is your name, fool?" Her filthy face had the beautiful lines of the woman he had been watching.

"I don't have one," he cast his eyes to the ground. "I gave my name up for a goal that I am chasing after."

"I don't have a name either," she flattened her hand against his.

"Then may I give you one?" The skin of her hands was rough and cracked from hard work and elements.

"If you wish," the mask shone in the moonlight, forgotten for the moment and broken for eternity.

"I shall call you, Shiva," he smiled, "it is the same name as that of a goddess. The goddess of beauty." Her cerulean eyes filled with tears that spilled over as if a cascade of hope overflowing in her heart.

"Your dream… it is not a fool's dream, but you are a fool for believing it so." She touched her hand to his chest. "Love, can last an eternity. Just as a mask can always be removed."

He looked up in awe as a spray of pink and gold broke the silver sky. Lights danced in the sky as she bent down and picked up her mask, holding it gently in her hands. He watched as the sky was illuminated with a new day and his heart lifted.

For his dream of the light overcoming the darkness came true… and he realized. Even when darkness comes, when night overtakes the light of day… the sun, the light, will always rise again in the morning. The light will always erase the shadows of the night.

"Those who chase after a fool's dream… chase after something that can never be had. They say… only a fool, only those that wish to be fooled can see my dance…" she said softly. "You are the first… whose fool's dream has come true," he looked over to see the dancer illuminated in morning light as she looked over at him.

"That I am." The fool said.


End file.
